White to move. What is the most accurate continuation for White?
2r2rk1/5pbp/1q2pnp1/1pNp4/pP1Pn1b1/P4NP1/1B2PPBP/2RQ1RK1 w – – 0 16
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ne5
han
1. Ne5! and black can choose whether to lose his bishop or the exchange
Ne5
1.Ne5! threatening both either knight on d7 and f3-g4 grabing the bishop
1. Ne5 Be6
2. Ned7 Nxd7
3. Nxd7 Qb7
4. Nxf8 Bxc1
5. Bxc1 Rxf8
6. f3 wins a piece.
It might be possible to trap the bishop. Start with 1. Ne5 and when the bishop moves to prevent the fork at f3, play for another fork at d7. One of them should work.
Don’t see anything really forced here, but I would play 1. Ne5. Depending on when and if Black plays plays N on e4 takes N on c5, White would play either dxc5 or bxc5, in most cases dxc5 I would expect, due to the opening up of the long diagonal for the White bishop. By playing 1. Ne5, White is making pawn moves to f3 and g4 possible, and also threatening Ned7. Just play 1. Ne5 and see what Black does.
Looks to me that white might win a piece with Ne5 threatening f3 fork on the bishop/knight, or a fork on the knight/knight if white plays a later Ng4:
1. Ne5
And black can retreat the bishop to h5 or f5 or retreat the knight to d6 or g5, or exchange at c5, but none seem particularly good to me:
1. …..Bh5
2. f3 Nd6 (eyeing c4)
3. g4 Rfd8
I have no idea which is best here for black- the bishop is toast, so I would want to improve the other pieces, and I think the king’s rook is probably better placed at d8 to help guard d7, though I could make an argument for playing Bh6, too, for getting a better piece. Black just seems to have nothing but poor options here. Any way, playing Rfd8 might tempt a careless white to play g5 thinking he sees a knight fork at d7 that isn’t really there (like I did when doing the analysis). Continuing:
4. gh5
I see no reason to wait. White could interpolate this move with something else, but I have justification for doing so. Continuing:
4. …..Nh5 (optically best)
5. f4
Offering to let black exchange the bishop for the knight so that black can park a knight at c4. If black exchanges, white gets a half open f-file if he wants it by taking with the f-pawn. Continuing:
5. …..Nc4
Is this best? I have no idea, but being a piece down, I would want to try to eliminate white’s strongest pieces, the knights, while locking up the pawn structure in such a way to make bishops as useless as possible. Continuing:
6. Nc4 dc4 (bc4 7.Qa4)
From here, it is clear that white’s advantage is great, and is probably decisive.
Black’s other first move alternatives should still lose a piece for a pawn, but some of them may be better overall.
First I looked at h3 but Bxf3 exf3 Nd6 doesn’t yield anything. But Ne5 threatens both a fork on d7 and winning the bishop on g4
Ne5 with ideas of Nd7 (forking queen and rook) and f3 (forking knight and bishop + threatening g4 trapping the bishop) wins material in all cases.
1.Ne5,
threatens both Nd7 winning an exchange, or f3,Nxc5,bxc5 winning the bishop Q moves, f3,Bf5,g4 trapping the bishop.
So black must play 1…Nxc5
2.bxc5, Q moves
3.f3, Bf5
4.g4 traps the bishop
1. Ne5 wins material because of a double threat.
First it threatens 2. Nd7 forking Q and R. Second, it threatens f3 and g4 to win the black Bishop.
Black can’t defend against both threats.
h3 gets you a piece for two pawns